FOLK MUSIC from WISCONSIN Edited by Helene Stratman-Thomas
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THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Music Division -- Recording Laboratory • FOLK MUSIC OF THE UNITED STATES Issued from the Collections of the Archive of Folk Song Long-Playing Record L55 FOLK MUSIC FROM WISCONSIN Edited by Helene Stratman-Thomas Preface The Wisconsin folk music recording project was in itiated in 1939 by Leland A. Coon, professor of music at the University of Wisconsin. A joint sponsorship by the Library of Congress and the University of Wisconsin was arranged, with Mr. Coon as chairman of the project. In the summers of 1940 and 1941, recording trips through Wis consin were made by field workers Robert F. Draves, record ing technician and Helene Stratman-Thomas, faculty advisor. Travel restrictions during the war years prevented resum ing the project until 1946, when the field staff included Aubrey Snyder as recording technician, Phyllis Pinkerton, research assistant and Miss Stratman-Thomas. The folk music recorded in Wisconsin depicts the state's history. Included is music of the Wisconsin Indian, of the colorful pattern of immigration from the many European countries, of the westward and northern migrations of early American colonists, and of the industrial development of , the state. It is the purpose of this recording to present only songs and ballads in the English tongue. English-speak ing people brought their songs to Wisconsin either directly from the British Isles or from earlier settlements in Canada or the eastern and southern areas of the United States. The American-born songs include some indigenous Wisconsin bal lads. (In evaluating Wisconsin as a ballad-making state, it must be kept in mind that early Wisconsin was a state of many languages. If an immigrant were inclined to compose , , a ballad he would probably do so in the language most familiar to him. For example, indigenous Wisconsin bal lads in the Luxemburg dialect have been recorded.) The English-speaking Irish seem to have been the principal bards of the lumber camps. Names of Wisconsin rivers and towns occur frequently in both indigenous and transplanted ballads. The accepted privilege of a singer to change the place name, to designate a locality of his choosing, creates difficulties in deter mining the correct point of origin of many a song. References in connection with the individual songs are given so that one may acquaint himself with variants or similar versions, with facts or conjecture as to the origin of the song, and with the different areas in which the song has been collected. The full bibliographical data for the sources indicated in these references is listed at the end of this pamphlet. - 2 , l'· 1 l Al POMPEY IS DEAD AND LAID IN HIS GRAVE [Sung by Dora Richards at Platteville, 1940. Recorded by Robert F. Draves and Helene Stratman-Thomas. ] This Child's singing game was a favorite of immigrants who came to the lead-mining area of southwestern Wisconsin from the county of Cornwall, England, around 1830 -- 1840. The name of the deceased varies in the different versions col lected in England -- Old Rogers, Sir Roger, Poor Johnnie, Cock Robin, Poor Toby; in the American versions -- Pompey, Old Willis, Old Bumpy, Poor Robin, Old Grandaddy. However, the incidents of the story vary only slightly. The game is treated at length in Gomme's Dictionary of British Folk Lore under the title "Old Roger Is Dead." The children stand in a ring singing the song. As the characters and incidents of the story unfold, the individual children step to the center of the ring to characterize the deceased, the tree, the apple, or the old woman, performing whatever action is described. The story itself is believed to have grown out of a popular superstition that the tree planted over the head of the deceased has a spirit connec tion with the deceased. Miss Richards' ancestors were among the early Cornish settlers of Mineral Point. They lived, at one time, on Shakerag Street in the stone cottage now known as Pendarvis House. Pompey is dead and laid in his grave, laid in his grave, laid in his grave, Pompey is dead and laid in his grave, oh, oh, oh. They planted green apple trees over his head, over his head, over his head, They planted green apple trees over his head, oh, oh, oh. The apples are ripe and beginning to fall, beginning to fall, beginning to fall, The apples are ripe and beginning to fall, oh, oh, oh. There came an old woman a-picking them up, picking them up, picking them up, There came an old woman a-picking them up, oh, oh, oh. - 3 Poapey jumped up and gave her a thump, gave her a thump, gave her a thuap, Pompey jumped up and gaye her a thuap, oh, oh, oh. Thea the old wo.an went hippety hop, hippety hop, hippety hop, Then the old woaan went hippety hop, oh, oh, oh. And there she went up to Strawberry Bill, Strawberry Hill, Strawberry Hill, There she went up to Strawberry Hill, oh, oh, oh. Then she sat down and made her a will, made her a will, made her a will, There she sat down and .ade her a will, oh, oh, oh. Maggie shall have the old gray mare, old gray mare, old gray mare, Maggie shall have the old gray mare, oh, oh, oh. The saddle and bridle lay under the shelf, under the shelf, under the shelf, The saddle and bridle lay under the shelf, oh, oh, oh. If you want any more you can sing it yourself, sing it yourself, sing it yourself, If you want any more you can sing it yourself, oh, oh, oh•• References Brown University, No. 50; Eddy, pp. 176-177; Flanders and Brown, pp. 182-183; Goa.e, Vol. II, pp. 16-24; Henry, pp. 408-409; JAFL, XXXV, p. 407; Pound, American Ballads••• , pp. 232-233; RaDQolph, III, pp. 381-382. A2 BOW HAPPY IS THE SPORTSIIAB [Sung by J. L. Peters at Beloit, 1946. Recorded by Aubrey Snyder and Phyllis Pinkerton.] - 4 This ballad was brought to Wisconsin from England by the Cornish who settled in the lead-mining area of southwestern Wisconsin in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Mr. Peters learned the song, when a small boy in Mineral Point, from hearing his father and grandfather sing it. Baring-Gould, who collected the song in England, refers to it as a very old ballad which dates back at least to the early seventeenth century. Around 1888 he obtained the song from an old quarryman at Merrivale Bridge in Devon, near the border of Cornwall. The Baring-Gould version be gins "There were three jovial Welshmen" and refers to the fox as Reynard. In Mr. Peters' song the fox is called Bowena. The verses of the two versions are similar, but the melodies have little in common. Mrs. Margaret Gullickson Anderson, as a little Nor wegian girl among the Cornish children in Dodgeville, learned the song from them. In later years she sang it to all her children and grandchildren. Ber version in cludes the verse: The next to come was a fair maid A-combing out her locks She said she saw poor Reyny Among the hills and rocks. Bow happy is the sportsman who love(s) to hunt the fox, Hunting for Bowena among the geese and ducks. Come hic, come hic, come high-low, along the merry stream, With a ra-ta-ta, ti-pa-ti-pa-tan, And with the royal bOw-wow-wow, roodle-doodle-doo, The bewbine zing, fiddle-diddle-dee and dye-dee, And through the woods we'll run, brave boys, And through the woods we'll run. The first he saw was a farmer, a-hoeing in his corn. Be said he saw Bowena across the waters lorn. Come hic, come hic, come high-low, along the merry stream, With a ra-ta-ta, ti-pa-ti-pa-tan, And with the royal bOw-wow-wow, roodle-doodle-doo, The bewbine zing, fiddle-diddle-dee and dye-dee, And through the woods wefll run, brave boys, And through the woods we'll run. The next he saw was a blind man, as blind as he could be. Be said he saw Bowena run up a hollow tree. Come hic, come hic, come high-low, along the merry stream, With a ra-ta-ta, ti-pa-ti-pa-tan, And with the ~oyal bOw-wow-wow, roodle-doodle-doo, The bewbine z~ng, fiddle-diddle-dee and dye-dee, And through the woods we'll run, brave boys, And through the woods we'll run. • - 5 References Baring-Gould, p. VII, pp. 154-155, Notes, pp. 21-22; Cox, pp. 476-477; Eddy, pp. 202-204; Flanders, Ballard, Brown and Barry, pp. 196-197; Linscott, pp. 290-292; Opie, p. 423; Randolph, I, pp. 326-327. A3 LORD LOVEL (Child No. 75) Sung by Winifred Bundy at Madison, 1941. Recorded by Robert F. Draves and Helene Stratman-Thomas. Miss BundY's earliest memories went back to the singing of "Lord Lovel" by her grandfather, James D. Morgan. This version bears a close similarity to many of those collected in the southern states and in Ohio. Miss Bundy firmly be lieved that her version is one handed down in her grand father's family in England and came with him to Canada and then to Wisconsin at the time of the Civil War. Miss Bundy's style of singing "Lord Lovel" is well expressed in Sandburg's quotation of Reed Smith of the University of South Carolina: "'Lord Lovel' clearly shows how necessary it is to deal with ballads as songs and not merely as poems.